Project “People for Marsh – Biodiversity Conservation at the Ljubljana Marsh”, or shorter LJUBA, is under way at the Ljubljana Marshes.

The project is co-financed by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and is going to run until the end of April 2016. The project partners are the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation, the Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park Public Institute, Institute for Agriculture and Forestry Ljubljana and Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Its total value is 554,274.20 euros, of which 94.9% is co-financed by the EEA.

The Ljubljana Marsh is one of the most biodiverse and important areas in Slovenia. Through millennia the presence of humans moulded the landscape and co-created living conditions for many rare, endangered and protected animal and plant species. Research shows the condition of numerous species and their habitats has deteriorated in the past decades, mainly due to changes in agricultural use. The purpose of the project is to improve living conditions of three Natura 2000 qualifying habitat types of the Ljubljana Marsh (moor-grasslands with purple moor-grass, wet mesotrophic grasslands with meadow foxtail and great burnet, and lowland bog) and four Natura 2000 qualifying species (fen orchid, and butterflies the false ringlet, the scarce large blue and the marsh fritillary).

The aim of the project is to educate the public on the important and responsible role of agriculture in biodiversity conservation of the Ljubljana Marsh, and to try to steer as many agricultural holdings towards nature-friendly agricultural practices, also with the help of improved cooperation between agricultural and nature conservation institutions in this area. On selected plots, some of them in the ownership of the City of Ljubljana, various methods of removing invasive non-native plant species the Canadian goldenrod and giant goldenrod are going to be tested and, with the assistance of volunteers, the wood overgrowth is going to be removed in the valley of Strajanov breg, which is the last residue of lowland bog in the Ljubljana Marsh. In the coming months several meetings and individual consultations with agricultural operators at the Ljubljana Marsh are going to be held regarding appropriate approaches to management of grasslands, which would be friendly towards butterflies, birds and other species in their natural habitat and at the same enable long-term balance in nature and good quality of life in the area of the Ljubljana Marsh.
For detailed information on the project see: www.ljuba.si/en.